Direct nitrogen fixation at the edges of graphene nanoplatelets as efficient electrocatalysts for energy conversion

Nitrogen fixation is essential for the synthesis of many important chemicals ( e.g. , fertilizers, explosives) and basic building blocks for all forms of life ( e.g. , nucleotides for DNA and RNA, amino acids for proteins). However, direct nitrogen fixation is challenging as nitrogen (N 2 ) does not...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2013-07, Vol.3 (1), p.2260, Article 2260
Main Authors: Jeon, In-Yup, Choi, Hyun-Jung, Ju, Myung Jong, Choi, In Taek, Lim, Kimin, Ko, Jaejung, Kim, Hwan Kyu, Kim, Jae Cheon, Lee, Jae-Joon, Shin, Dongbin, Jung, Sun-Min, Seo, Jeong-Min, Kim, Min-Jung, Park, Noejung, Dai, Liming, Baek, Jong-Beom
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/299/890
639/301/357/918/1055
639/638/549/884
639/638/77/886
Amino acids
Bioelectric Energy Sources
Catalysts
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Electrochemistry
Energy
Energy conversion
Fertilizers
Fuel cells
Graphite
Graphite - chemistry
Humanities and Social Sciences
Models, Molecular
Molecular Conformation
multidisciplinary
Nanostructures - chemistry
Nanostructures - ultrastructure
Nitrogen
Nitrogen Fixation
Nucleotides
Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
Science
Solar cells
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Summary:Nitrogen fixation is essential for the synthesis of many important chemicals ( e.g. , fertilizers, explosives) and basic building blocks for all forms of life ( e.g. , nucleotides for DNA and RNA, amino acids for proteins). However, direct nitrogen fixation is challenging as nitrogen (N 2 ) does not easily react with other chemicals. By dry ball-milling graphite with N 2 , we have discovered a simple, but versatile, scalable and eco-friendly, approach to direct fixation of N 2 at the edges of graphene nanoplatelets (GnPs). The mechanochemical cracking of graphitic C−C bonds generated active carbon species that react directly with N 2 to form five- and six-membered aromatic rings at the broken edges, leading to solution-processable edge-nitrogenated graphene nanoplatelets (NGnPs) with superb catalytic performance in both dye-sensitized solar cells and fuel cells to replace conventional Pt-based catalysts for energy conversion.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep02260